This invention relates to electrical connectors. More particularly, it relates to a system for preventing power terminals from being connected or disconnected with the system ungrounded.
When interconnecting electrical circuits, particularly with high voltages or high currents present, it is important that the system be grounded so as to avoid the dangers of electrical shock. Furthermore, if the system is ungrounded during connection or disconnection of the power terminal or terminals, it will not comply with industry safety standards. Electrical connectors which integrate the power contacts and the ground contact into the same housing solve this problem by making the ground contact somewhat longer than the power contacts. Thus the ground contact is always connected to its mating contact prior to the connection of the power contacts to their respective mating contacts. Furthermore, the ground contact is always disconnected subsequent to the disconnection of the power contacts due to its longer length. In applications where rather high levels of current are used such as, for example, in welding, shipboard and in certain theatrical fields, it would be too unwieldy to manufacture a cable jumper with connectors having fully integrated contacts and ground contacts due to the large size of the conductors. Thus, for large size conductors the conductors are usually separate for each conductor.